


Heartbeats

by deathbychai



Category: The OC
Genre: First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-03
Updated: 2012-09-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 10:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/502575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathbychai/pseuds/deathbychai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan comes to apologize in the aftermath of bailing on the wedding shower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeats

Flopped on his bed, Seth forlornly holds on to Captain Oats. “Hey buddy. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be between you and Princess Sparkle. I know it’s tough but one of us has to be the strong one.”

His ears prick at the sounds of someone walking in, but they’re not the mincing steps of Summer and the soothing clack of her heels. So, he doesn’t muster the energy to look up. Ryan walks quietly in and sits down on the bed next to Seth, his face a picture of contrition. “Sorry I bailed on the shower.”

Still looking at Captain Oats, Seth can’t muster the energy to acknowledge his hurt from Ryan’s actions. Not after the incident with Summer. So he just replies, “Don’t you think this apology should be elsewhere? Like say, Marissa?”

“I guess. But I also want to apologize to you,” Ryan murmurs, playing with his hands.

“Why?” Seth pursues relentlessly, not caring if he’s being rude. Not caring that Ryan, being Ryan, doesn’t want to explain.

“Well, you know…”

“Because you totally blew me off? It’s okay, really. Besides, you’re not the only one leaving me these days,” Seth retorts bitterly.

“Summer?” asks Ryan with an empathetic gesture of his eyebrows.

“Yeah. At the dinner with her dad, I just couldn’t shut up. I just kept talking and talking…”

“It’s okay. It’s not always a bad thing, you know?” Ryan says, looking up to try to make eye contact for the first time.

“What is that supposed to me? How is it not a bad thing? Look at me,” Seth exclaims, voice rising with agitation. It looks like he’s two steps away from waving Captain Oats around with frustration, “And then look at you. You’re always the silent brooding type: I don’t talk, just grunt. Cue swooning from all the ladies.”

“What about guys?”

“Well, them too.”

A second passes, and it seems nothing short of an eternity for Ryan. Finally, Seth’s attention jerks from the toy horse in his lap. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard me. What about…” Ryan starts to repeat as he drops eye contact to nervously fumble with his hair. Then, he finishes the question almost inaudibly, “…you?”

“I didn’t know I mattered so much. I thought it was all about Marissa. Maybe Theresa every once in a while, but Marissa, Marissa. That’s all you ever say man,” Seth babbles on, confused.

“Marissa’s Marissa. And you’re…you.”

“Wow. Way to be eloquent Ryan. What on earth does that mean?”

“It means that I’m interested in you, okay?” Ryan blurts with agitation, “It means that sure, I care about Marissa. Sure, I care about Theresa. But I didn’t fight with Eddie so I could come back. Not to Marissa, but to you.”

And all Seth can do for once is stare. In that one moment, all the words of the English language flee him, and he just sits, slack-jawed, his horse lying forgotten in his lap.

“You know what, forget it,” Ryan says. Stumbling to his feet, he all but darts towards the door.

Before either knows what has even happened, Seth’s hand shoots out and tries to catch Ryan, choking out one word, “Wait.”

Ryan turns, all awkward hope and prepared disappointment. And out comes another word, “Stay.”

In two strides, Ryan crosses the short distance back to the bed. He wavers at the side of the bed, struggling between climbing on and leaving. Between judgment and passion. Control and passion. Sanity and abandon. And all the hesitation is thrown to the wind with one more word, insidious in its throaty appeal. As Seth gazes up, just as scared as Ryan but still uttering that magic word, “Please.”

And they are a flurry of limbs as Ryan clambers onto the bed to pull Seth into his arms, striving for completion of a desire that has been too long in the making. And as their skin touch, it instantly soothes and lights both their hearts into galloping in simple four: four meter but at the rapid one twenty tempo of a tango. And as Ryan’s hand reverently grazes Seth’s cheek, his sigh seems nothing short of a cool ocean breeze that is just what is needed for to propel the sails. And Seth yearns upward, hopelessly, haplessly, and helplessly longing. And their eyes both reverently close as their lips strive towards each other. And they meet in a explosion of hot and cold, fast and slow, and the world outside falls away.

Only to be jerked back by the sound of a voice calling at the door, “Ryan? Are you in there?”

Ryan balks, startled by the suddenness of it all. Both Seth and Marissa wanting him in that one burning moment. Ambivalence dulls his eyes, and then he makes his decision as he whispers to Seth, pleading with his eyes that he’ll understand, “She needs me right now.” And then louder as he pulls away, “Uh yeah. I’ll be right there.”

And Seth is left, sitting on the bed, wondering. He slowly touches his lips, missing the almost oppressive warmth that was there just seconds ago. He turns to his side and picks up his horse once again, “So Captain Oats. I guess Princess Sparkle isn’t right for you after all.”

And when Ryan wakes up in the groggy light of morning, he finds a horse lying next to his pillow.


End file.
